Forced Friendship
by Touch of Grey
Summary: Because when your best friend and your boyfriend hate each other, things can get awkward. Eddie/Zat, Eddie/Jaime friendship.


It had been Eddie's idea, of course.

"Just go and get lunch with him, get to know him. C'mon, Zat, for me?"

Eddie, as simple-minded and naive as he could be sometimes, was convinced that the world as we know it would end if he, Zachary Zatara, the world's greatest and most popular teenaged magician, and Jaime Reyes, the bug kid, didn't get along.

"You're my boyfriend, he's my best friend-"

"I thought that _I_ was your best friend?"

"You both are. Anyway, you've _got_ to get along! I'm not asking you to sit around a campfire and sing Kuhmbaya, just go and eat somewhere. Food is the ultimate, uh, people-bringer-together!"

Which is why the two of them, he and the bug kid, were sitting in a booth together at Olive Garden and doing everything they could not to look at each other.

"So," Jaime finally began. "Wow, weather. It sure is...weathery." Zat touched a hand to his forehead.

"Ah, give me strength. You, bug kid. I am not here because I want to be here. I am here because Eddie is inexplicably fond of you and, as his boyfriend, I am also expected to stand you for some reason. Do you want to split one of those gigantic salads?" Jaime blinked, an uneasy smile settling around his lips.

"Uh, okay." he smirked. "So, threatened to cut you off, did he?" Zat groaned.

"For a month, if not more. I'd be fine with it if I didn't start touring again next month. I mean, it isn't like I don't have groupies, but A. I love Eddie and B. They're mostly women. You see my dilemma. Now shut up, eat your salad, and tell Eddie I was perfectly civil with you when we get back to the Tower." Jaime snickered quietly. "What?"

"He's got you so whipped." a vein visibly pulsed in Zat's temple.

"At least _my_ significant other never forced me to bring her to the Tower, like some heroes I could mention."

"Hey, at least _my_ girlfriend doesn't force me into going to lunch with someone I can't stand."

"Then why are you here?" Zat asked, and Jaime blushed.

"...Eddie and Megan did the puppy-dog face. If it had just been Eddie, I wouldn't be here, but that girl has _insane_ pouting skills."

"Ah. In the end, it was partially the pouts that got to me as well." they grinned at each other, then quickly looked down.

"Dios, are we actually getting along?"

"It feels almost dirty, doesn't it?"

"I won't tell Eddie if you don't."

The rest of the meal was eaten in awkward near-silence.

***

The mood inside the Tower when they returned was considerably lighter than when they had left. It seems that almost as soon as they'd headed out, Misfit had teleported in with the latest Dance Dance Revolution (DDR: The Super Megamix) game, and Traci had called in pizza while she set it up. With Robin gone and Cassie MIA, Eddie had had free reign of the Tower, which meant that he could call in as many young heroes as he could for a DDR tournament. In the end, only Megan, Offspring, and Aquagirl had shown up, but it still made for a damn good day.

Having been eliminated only minutes before Zat and Jaime returned (he'd made it to the finals, only to be eliminated by Megan, who was facing off against Ernie to take the gold), Eddie was still in pleasantly sweaty high spirits, returning from the kitchen with another 6-pack of soda. Spotting his two friends, he grinned.

"So, are you two bestest friends forever now?" Eddie hadn't bothered with his costume today, and was only wearing shorts and a tank, both of which were clinging to him in, what Zat saw as, a very appealing way. Zat licked his suddenly dry lips.

"Oh, yes, completely. We'll be having a camp out next weekend. Can I speak to you for a moment? In the kitchen? Alone?" his eyes full of questions, Eddie allowed himself to be dragged out of the room.

"Uh, be right back, guys."

They were three steps into the kitchen when Zat jumped him. Eddie, having been training two hours a day with whomever would fight him, was not going to be jumped without a bit of an upper hand in the situation. Grinning wider than he had all day, he pushed Zat against the wall, both hands tangled in ebony hair, hell-hot mouth slick against the other's. Zat panted hard when they finally broke apart.

"I _never_, repeat, _never_ want to be sent out on a lunch date with the bug kid when you decide to wear something like, like," he waved his hand vaguely. "Like _this_, and then sweat, leaving, is this cotton?, leaving your _cotton sleeping garments_ to stick to you in naughty ways and making me _miss_ most of it because I'm at fucking _Olive Garden_ with the _bug kid_!!!" his eyes rolled into his head slightly due to lack of air. "I saw a blue sky in my head for a moment there. I'm okay now."

Eddie opened his mouth, shut it again, then fell to the floor laughing.

Fini

This is for xlineartx, who starts me off every day with my usual braingasm inspiration of yay.


End file.
